Suddenly, I'm Not So Young
by BlackPuma137
Summary: A series focused on Annabeth during PJATO and Heroes of Olympus. "It only took one moment, though, for her to realize  that she might be—no, that she was, in love with Percy: when Luke asked her if she had ever loved him."
1. Die Alone

**Die Alone**

_Author's Note: The first in a Annabeth-POV, one-shot series that will include what I promised in my other Percabeth "finished" series. Inspired by Ingrid Michaelson's Die Alone. All credit to her and Rick Riordan; lyrics belong to her, book series belong to him. Read it while listening to her—it makes more sense for the title._

_This is for the Last Olympian._

Annabeth never thought of anything close to romance.

There had been Luke, and that was that. There was never any turning back after that, she had thought. There would never be anything _but_ that, she had thought.

This was the only person that knew her in and out, the only person that knew what she had gone through, the only person worthy of having her at all, she had thought.

She had been young. She had been hurt.

And then, even though she hadn't realized it, Percy came along.

She never truly realized what love was or what it meant to be with someone other than Luke.

There had been a few moments, though, when she realized that she might have a crush on Percy.

She wanted to brush it off though—Percy was Percy, for Athena's sake, and he has that stupid Rachel girl.

Ugh—don't get her started on Rachel! Rachel, Rachel, Rachel, that was all Annabeth was capable of thinking about when either Percy was near her or when an R-name came up. She had almost murdered her stepmother when she mentioned a Roxy—not really improving on their still-tenuous relationship.

It only took one moment, though, for her to realize that she might be—no, that she _was, _in love with Percy: when Luke asked her if she had ever loved him.

It wasn't really too surprising: it was just as if the whole world, the whole of the her life, made sense all of sudden. And it wasn't really too disorientating: she and Percy went about like normal, fixing up what was leftover after the battle, making sure Camp Half-Blood got back to normal. She woke in the morning, got ready for the day, ate breakfast, worked, ate dinner and went back to bed.

But when she found a bit of time, she went to Tyson, and together, they went to the kitchens and tried their best to make a Percy's blue birthday cake.

It ended up being the best summer she had ever had.


	2. Your Love Is My Drug

**Your Love is My Drug**

_Author's Note: Yay! for the Lost Hero. Here's the first in what I promised in my other fanfiction. This is before The Lost Hero, which is owned by Rick Riordan, so this would be the school year after the last Percy Jackson book, a month or so before the Lost Hero, because I'm assuming The Lost Hero comes about in the last few months before the end of the second semester in the school year following the summer in which The Last Olympian occurred. (Sorry about that headache of a sentence.) This is also accompanied by Your Love is My Drug, sung and owned by Ke$ha. _

Annabeth's favorite season was summer. After all, that's when she got to escape from school, go to camp, train, go on missions...be herself. But most of all, that's when she got to see Percy. So when she came home two weeks before Christmas break and got a Iris Message from Percy himself, she was ecstatic.

She was reading a book for English class (her reading had been improving of late) and so it took Percy a few times before she noticed the dull haze of an incoming call.

"Finally, Annabeth. Took you long enough," teased Percy.

(Annabeth was too busy staring a Percy to tease him back. She hadn't seen him for at least a week, and his very-real appearance in her boarding-school dorm had made her heart beat so fast she needed a minute to recoup—but then, that was a common occurrence.)

"Ha-ha. What's up?"

"Blackjack."

"_Percy_..."

"So serious all of a sudden..." Percy grinned mischievously, and suddenly Annabeth couldn't stop smiling either. It really had been long since she'd last seen him. But then, when could she _ever_ get enough?

"I was just wondering, actually, when you're off for winter?"

"Umm, well I convinced my teachers to give my finals early so, I'd say...two weeks from now?"

"No way!"

Annabeth couldn't help laughing at Percy's outrageously joyful grin. He looked rather like a crackhead sometimes, she thought.

Percy pouted though, and Annabeth made to look serious; though she was sure that Percy would see through that.

"I'm just kidding, Percy. Go on?"

"I was just going to say," Percy half-growled, "that my break is in two weeks from now, too!"

"I thought your break was in three weeks?"

"Naw, I just transferred to a new school..."Percy was oblivious to Annabeth's sigh. "...so my break's in two weeks now instead."

"A new school already?"

"What do mean 'already'? It's not like before, with a new school _every_ year. It's been a year and a half in this school; I'm rather proud of that!" replied an indignant Percy.

"What was it _this_ time?"

"It wasn't me, I swear!"

"And I'm not a goddess's child..."

"Alright, I _might_ have had a _little_ to do with it..."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows.

"Okay, okay...how about we talk about it on Sunday?" Percy's voice rose with hope.

"What do you mean? Are you coming then?" Annabeth's boarding school (unlike Percy, she managed to stay in the same school she told Percy about after they got together) only allowed a few days for going out, and Annabeth wasn't sure whether Camp Half-Blood would call for either her or Percy this weekend.

Percy grinned. "Oh yeah! Why don't we go see a movie and then have lunch at our bistro?"

They'd gone to that little bistro around the corner from the movies so much the owner practically knew their names by now.

"Sure! Have any movies in mind?"

"Um...well, you know, the one with the action and the old people..."

She rolled her eyes. "Do you mean Red?"

Percy brightened. "Yeah! How'd you know?"

"Because I know you, silly. How soon can you be at the movies?"

Percy turned to his computer for a minute. "I can be there at either 11:00, 11:30, 2:00-"

"11:00," interrupted Annabeth.

"Eager to see me, huh?" Percy teased.

Annabeth shook her head. "Nope, I've been waiting too long to see that movie."

Percy pouted. "Yeah, right."

"Right," Annabeth replied, and winked.

Percy chuckled. "So what do you think is really up with those gods? Do you think we're going to have to-"

At that moment, Annabeth's roommate knocked, causing Annabeth to grimace. "Just a minute!" she shouted at the door, and turned back to Percy, cringing. "Sorry, Percy, I've got to go."

"Alright, just make sure to be there, okay?" he replied.

"Wouldn't miss it for anything!"

"Ok, see you then!" Percy's voice gradually faded as he cut off the call. Annabeth grinned, then got up to let her roommate in.

"Hey, Annabeth!" said her spastic roommate. "I've just been out with Emma and Carla; we were listening to Emma's iPod. Wanna hear the new single from Kesha? It's wicked!" Before waiting to hear Annabeth's reply, her roommate walked over to Annabeth's laptop and quickly pulled up Kesha's Vevo. An infectious beat and Kesha's voice suddenly filled the room.

_What you've got boy is hard to find  
I think about it all about it all the time  
I'm all strung up, my heart is fried  
I just can't get you off my mind  
Because your love, your love, your love, is my drug_

And Annabeth couldn't help but agree with Kesha's assessment of the situation.


	3. Somewhere Only We Know

**Somewhere Only We Know**

_Author's Note: Lyrics and title all belong to the beautiful Keanne. I didn't even realize I was using all songs in the last few chapters, but it's by accident—I always listen to a playlist for my stories and I guess these just slipped in by accident._

Where was he?

Where was that godsforsaken, slimy, scrappy brat?

Annabeth swore; if he wasn't going to show up, if he was being attacked-

But no, she told herself. Percy wasn't just not show up or get attacked. He was too good of a fighter to fall prey to an attack, and even he knew that he couldn't mess with Annabeth with a prank like this.

Right?

Right. Because there he was, walking up the snowy lane right now, an obnoxious grin on his face and a well-used rucksack over his shoulder. Annabeth gave a sigh, and began running down across the property line—right into his embrace.

"You know, you shouldn't fret that much," he smirked.

"Oh, like I was anxious about _you_!"

"You were—I could see it on your face." Percy grabbed her hand, interlaced their fingers, and began leading her back up to camp at a leisurely pace.

"Well, in my defense, I was worried about you."

"More like cursing at me inside your head."

Annabeth stuck her tongue out at him. "Fine, I admit it. I was anxious. But you know as well as I do-"

"I know, I know. We're half-bloods, we aren't safe yet, the prophecy is going to come sooner than you think, the problem with Cabin 9 and all that. But honestly, it's almost insulting that you don't trust me enough to just come down to camp."

"Yeah, yeah. One of these days you're going to get kidnapped or something because of your cavalier attitude!"

"Cavalier?"

Annabeth savored his confused look, so she merely shrugged and decided to defect. "Nevermind. I'm really happy you could come a week earlier than usual, though."

"So am I," he replied, looking at her in that way that made her shiver.

She leaned forward and kissed him deeply, effectively ending the conversation.

She couldn't help thinking, though, that she still had an awful feeling that something bad was going to happen, and sooner rather than later. Something worse than what was already happening.

* * *

After they got up to camp and got a healthy scolding from Chiron ("That property line is not to be crossed once you've arrived here, Annabeth! And why on Zeus's green Earth did you start a snowball fight in Camp?") and dumped Percy's things in his cabin (Annabeth could tell he was going to have extra chores in the summer, seeing as how Percy was never going to stop being a slob), Annabeth started leading Percy into the woods.

They enjoyed the walk through—despite the rest of Long Island being frozen and steeped in snow, Camp was as warm and toasty as a seat in front of a fire. The trees all said hello, and though Annabeth was tempted to take out the few trees feisty enough to flirt with Percy, Percy's warm arm on her waist effectively silenced her protests. They spoke of school, of the movie, of the past two weeks, of finals, what could possible be wrong with the gods, Cabin 9...everything, really. When they ran out of topics, they simply reveled in each other's company—after all, they didn't get enough time together.

Well, not enough time to please _them._

In any case, they just needed to be somewhere where the troubles of the world couldn't reach them.

And eventually, they reached it.

It was really just a small shelter made by two intertwining oak trees just off the shore of Fireworks Beach. The trees were huge, as all plant life in the forests there, and as a result of their proximity to each other, they had become intertwined; their trunks and some exposed roots made a sort of hut. The opening was bit small, but once inside, the space seemed capacious. Today, though, since all of the campers were in camp, still greeting each other and the like, they sat on the outside and simply looked out to the sea. The only sound that could be heard were the waves crashing on the beach, a peaceful twittering of birds, and, occasionally, the muttering of a few trees around them. That is, until Percy spoke up.

"Annabeth?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't want to ruin a moment or anything, but I feel like...I feel like something is going to happen. Something big. I don't want to scare you, and I don't want to make this seem bigger than it is...But I just know. I mean, the gods still haven't sent any word yet. I can't contact my dad anymore, and the Cabin 9 thing...I just want to let you know that I...I love you. And if something ever happens, if we're ever separated, I want you to go to this place, these trees. I want you to know that I'll always love you, that if something ever happens, this _our_ place. And I'll always come back here, if I can. So you can always find me," he finished. He seemed a bit pink, a bit embarrassed. "Sorry if that sounded a little cheesy, but-"

Annabeth simply kissed him so hard theyonly broke apart a minute later, gasping. "I'll wait here. When I won't be searching or fighting for you, I'll be here; I promise."

"Good," Percy replied softly. "Good."

Then, the only sound that could be heard were the waves crashing on the beach, a peaceful twittering of birds, and occasionally, the muttering of a few trees around them.

This was the place they were both dreaming of—a place to be with each other, a place to be just Percy and Annabeth. Not demigods or heroes or architects or students.

It was just a place to rely on while the world went screwy.


	4. Snowballs

**Snowballs**

_Author's Note: No songs this time, but I was listening to Toothpaste Kisses from Angus, Thongs and Snogging if anyone cares. _

"Percy, I swear on the river Styx-"

_Splat._ Freezing cold snow suddenly filled her vision and face. She gasped as some of it went down her shirt, instantly giving her large, convulsive shivers.

She wiped powder out of her eyes and glared at her boyfriend.

Percy merely shrugged and smiled, only slightly abashed. "We had a bit of a snowball fight before, and I didn't want to end it losing."

They had walked back to camp just as the sun was beginning to creep toward the horizon, when Percy unexpectedly ran toward the property line and scooped up some snow, forming a snowball. Or, as Annabeth liked to see it, he had scooped a declaration of war.

She pursed her lips and headed toward Percy, who quickly put on an innocent expression. She made like she was going in for a kiss-

-but watched instead as Percy's eyes grew wide and he too, began shivering. He glanced down at his shirt and grimaced as he noticed the snow she had packed into his shirt.

"Cold enough for you, Percy?"

"You are so on," he replied. With that, they began scooping up and throwing snowballs as fast as they could at each other. They were so into it, they barely bothered to aim anymore.

So when they (Annabeth claims it was Percy's snowball) accidentally hit Will, who was bringing wood for the campfire, they didn't notice until he had joined the fight too.

All of sudden, though, all the campers had joined in—and snowballs were flying everywhere. Eventually, about ten minutes in, Annabeth could barely see anymore. As quickly as she could, she squatted and began running for cover behind the guarder of the Golden Fleece (for a dragon, he was rather scared of the snow and was merely whimpering behind his paws during the entire tirade).

She slide into place behind him, and began searching for Percy in the crowd of snowball fighters. Abruptly, though, she felt his warm arms encase her and his lips on her cheek.

She giggled, causing Percy to shush her. "We have to be quiet," he whispered.

Annabeth giggled again. "And might you tell me why?"

"In case Chiron comes charging at us like a wild horse."

"Percy, Chiron _is_ a horse."

"Only partly. We wouldn't want to turn on his wild side, would we?"

Annabeth laughed again. "No, I suppose we wouldn't. So this was your plan, was it?"

"I didn't have a plan, actually."

"Sure. You didn't plan on creating a full-fledged, totally disaproved-of snowball fight _at all_."

"Well..."

"See?"

"You know, I think we might have to silence you for a bit. You talk too much." With that, Percy kissed her again—long enough to take her breath away.

"Actually, I think the only reason your against me talking is because you're afraid of what I know," Annabeth teased.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, if that's how you think..." And then he started pelting her with snowballs, leaving her with only one choice—to run back out into the chaos.

"NO, _Percy_!"

"Begging won't get you anywhere," he smirked.

"And begging won't get you anywhere, either, Perseus Jackson!" rang out a clear (but very irate) voice.

Percy and Annabeth stood up again, to find a very sober atmosphere. When Chiron had spoken, the chaos and snowballs had stopped, and everybody had ceased to do anything, merely look ashamedly at their feet.

"Now, I don't care much for anybody being on or near the property line anymore. As for the snow...well, if you had wanted some, we could have asked. But I refuse to let you all endanger not only yourselves, but the whole of camp, for just a silly game. The Titan War is over, and no one is allowed to just march out of camp anymore, except when given missions or when I have been spoken to. I except all of you to continue following those rules.

Please go back into camp, everybody. _Except_ for all head counselors, who I want to see in the Big House." Chiron looked expectantly at Percy and Annabeth and began to gallop back down the hill.

Annabeth felt herself biting her lip. This was probably not going to be good.


	5. Serious Shit Is Going Down

**Serious Shit is Going Down**

_Author's Note: The language here is part of the reason why I made this rated the way it is. _

Annabeth had been expecting another lecture from Chiron about the property line/snow thing.

What she got was a lot worse.

She held Percy's hand tightly as they walked to the Big House. Coincidentally, most of the head counselors were already here for winter break, too. After the war, everybody was a lot closer. At least three-fourths of all campers had arrived already, and usually only one-fourth even showed up for winter break. Unfortunately, that meant Drew was here as well. Annabeth still couldn't take that brat. Ugh—in Annabeth's opinion, any camper other than Drew would be preferred. After all, even Silena wouldn't leer at anybody else's boyfriend like Drew was doing now.

Still, Annabeth greeted everyone with a smile.

"Hey guys, how's life?"

"Great—had the best snowball fight of my life just recently," grinned Connor.

Everybody laughed (excepting Drew), but as Chiron entered the room, the atmosphere sobered once more.

"Counselors," he nodded. He waited until everybody nodded as well, then continued. "As you all know, the Titan War was a huge victory. But we have won a lot more than a war. We've won brothers and sisters we've never had, we've gained the respect of the gods, and we've created a much tighter-knit community. Look at us now—we've had more campers this time of year than ever before.

Much of that is due to Percy, who we all thank." At this, Percy grew bright red.

"It's more due to all of us, really. I had little to do with it," he protested.

"Yes, that is partly true—many of you played a great part in the proceedings. And unfortunately, I'm going to have to ask you all to ready yourselves for such an event again. I have strong reason to believe we're going to be faced with the prophecy much sooner than you think," Chiron continued.

There was suddenly a collected feeling of disbelief and despair in the room. Even Drew stopped fretting with her hair long enough to look concerned.

"What? I thought these prophecys take, like, forever to become true!" she screeched.

Chiron sighed. "Yes, that is usually the case. And I'm not entirely sure of this event either. I could be wrong, of course, but given the curse and the quietness of the gods recently...I'm not sure what to make of all this."

"You mean the gods still haven't said anything? But it's been close to a month now!" said Percy. He gripped her hand a bit tighter from under the table. "I thought that you were trying to get back into contact with them..." he trailed off.

"But it's obvious something's going to happen, isn't it?" came a voice from behind them.

Everybody looked over at the door from the hospital. Jake, the new counselor for Hephaestus's cabin, rolled out on a wheelchair. He looked awful—covered in casts and looking in need of some serious aspirin.

"Jake," warned Chiron. "You should go back to the hospital!"

Jake shook his head. Annabeth had only talked to him a few times, but he was a nice guy—he didn't deserve to be in so much pain.

"I want everyone to know—serious shit is going down. Our cabin still can't make anything work, and it's not because of lack of talent." A few nervous laughs rang around the room. "With Beckendorf not in here anymore...I didn't want you guys to know, but the dragon...it's a lost cause. You're seeing what he did to me right now.

Butch spoke up. "Wait-I thought all you had to do was a few repairs? What do you mean-he's not at all operational anymore? Isn't there anything you can do?"

Jake shook his head solemnly. "No, it's a lost cause."

The mood suddenly dropped down another notch. If Hephaestus's cabin couldn't make something like that work...the dragon had been one of the certainties of camp life lately. It was a symbol: a symbol of what demigods could do-Beckendorf brought it back to life, made the ancient new again, made something that was supposed to be a scrap of metal a workable, loving force of good. It was a symbol of might, of power, of what kids that had been rejected by the normal world could do.

"I don't know why this is happening, but I don't think we really need any more signs that we need to be careful. Something big is going down—I think everybody knows that, deep down inside." With that, Jake rolled back out to the hospital, leaving behind stunned counselors.

They all looked at each other with a sense of foreboding. What was going to happen next? Who was going to get lost next?

They'd all been the deepest kind of hell last summer, but it didn't matter. It was going to start over all over again...and there was nothing they could do but wait.


	6. Brumalia

**Brumalia**

_Author's Note: I knew they probably didn't celebrate Christmas, but I thought the very least they would celebrate would be the new year and Brumalia. For those who don't know, is here to help: __Brumalia was an ancient Greek solstice festival in honor of Dionysus. During the Brumalia, the fermented grape wine was poured into jars. The festival included drinking and merriment and was popular enough to last until the 12th century in somewhat altered form._

_Happy New Year to all!_

_Dedicated to Priya, btw. Thanks for reading—you have no idea how much it means to me!_

Annabeth hated waiting. But that's what demigod life was made of apparently—waiting for more information, waiting for the end of a quest, waiting for results, waiting to see what happened, waiting to see who appeared or disappeared. Endlessly, endlessly waiting.

Annabeth wanted to let go of her patience, of her good sense, of her godly parentage, even. This Cabin 9 debacle, this communication break with the gods…this was not good. She didn't know what to make of it. She was, in truth, scared out of her wits. This wasn't like the last prophecy.

This was quite literally the end of the world.

Sometimes it seemed like it was always like that; sometimes she wondered if she was more melodramatic than she thought. Maybe she was exaggerating, maybe things wouldn't be as bad as they seemed.

But this occasion took the cake. This occasion deserved that phrase. If there was one thing she knew, it was that. Chiron, even, was scared—she could tell.

Yet, the worst thing right now was not the uncertainty or the danger or actual fighting. The worst thing was not knowing what the threat was. The worst thing, if one could pick a thing, was not knowing what was to come, pondered Annabeth, as she walked out of the Big House. Chiron had wrapped things up with a somber note: he was considering taking out all activities in the woods and all typical first-day-at-camp traditions (the first day of camp being four days from then) and had insisted that all counselors advise their campers to the dangers of what was happening.

Drew seemed the lone counselor who was unconcerned, and Annabeth was almost jealous as she flounced off to her fellow cabin mates, gabbing about a certain movie star and not having a care in the world. Annabeth felt like she was nine again—staring at a huge monster with no help in sight and no training. Back then, all the monsters had seemed unbeatable, but they all_ had_ to be defeated. She wanted to be like Drew—careless, not having enough intelligence to fully grasp the events that were happening.

She looked up at Percy (Annabeth was still wondering _when_, exactly, he had gotten so much taller than her) and was about to remark as such when she realized that he was staring at Drew, a rather slavish look on his face.

She narrowed her eyes and snapped in front of his face. "Having nice thoughts, are we?"

"Huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Percy?"

"It's not my fault, honest. I just can't help it! It's like a spell or something."

Annabeth gave a harrumph, to which Percy was about to start defending himself, when the Stoll brothers suddenly jumped in front of them.

"Soo…" began Travis.

"The lovebirds having some troubles?" continued Connor.

"We thought we might as well ask…"

"Seeing as how the world's about to end…"

"And, really, while we're on the subject…"

"We just wanted to ask…"

"Do you think we can raid all those pesky RadioShacks?"

"You know, after all the doom and gloom."

"Because we really didn't get the spoils we wanted from New York…"

"That was a total rip off, man."

Annabeth and Percy began cracking up.

Connor and Travis grinned at each other. "So that's a yes!" they said simultaneously.

"So…"

"Let me guess, you guys were wondering?" interjected Percy.

"Yeah! How'd you guess?" asked Connor, grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, anyhoo, fancy grabbing a few contrabands from that store a few miles and celebrating the holidays with some real cheer?" continued Travis.

"I think we've managed a way to distract the harpies during their rounds."  
Annabeth knew she should be frowning. After all, that was totally off-limits. But then, as she looked around, she noticed a few things that had slipped her notice. None of the Cabin 9 kids were looking remotely happy at all, and most head counselors were doom and gloom anyway. Most of the other campers hadn't needed a debriefing from their counselors to know that something was up—she watched as Butch had only needed to _approach_ the Iris campers for one of the campers to ask—"So when is the next war starting?"

All in all? There wasn't exactly a cheery feeling all around. So why not, she thought. It's not like Chiron could really object to the idea; if they pitched it correctly, maybe he would even agree.

"Yeah know guys? That's not exactly a bad idea. But I was thinking—why not make it a camp-wide thing?"

"Like a camp party?" asked Connor dubiously.

"I think that's actually exactly what the camp needs," said Percy thoughtfully. "Brilliant idea," he grinned at Annabeth, who smiled back in return.

"Stomach-churning flirting aside, I think we should do it!" exclaimed Connor.

"What do you guys want to do? New Year's Eve, maybe Brumalia?" asked Annabeth.

* * *

"Hmm…Brumalia without Mr. D?" Chiron stroked his beard thoughtfully.

"Come on, Mr. D. It'd be so rad!" Connor piped in.

"And it would really bring up the mood of the campers," added Percy.

"Maybe it would even provoke some kind of response from Mr. D," said Annabeth. He hadn't considered it before, but as she remembered the tradition behind Brumalia…there was a good chance that Mr. D would show up.

"I don't know…there's so much going on right now," said Chiron.

"But that's the reason why we need it so badly right now!" said Percy. "Look, we're not suggesting wine or anything, like the typical celebration—"

"Although we're not exactly disregarding it," interrupted Travis.

"—but we just wanted something fun for the campers to look forward to. After all, this might just be the last really fun, community-centered thing that's not revolving around a prophecy, right?"

Chiron nodded, though there was still some doubt in his eyes. "Well…I'll consider it. But don't speak to any others about it," he said, glaring at the Stoll brothers, "otherwise we might have a riot on our hands if something comes up."

They all nodded gravely, and as Chiron dismissed, the boys gave large whoops of success. Annabeth rolled her eyes, but couldn't prevent herself from laughing.

Perhaps this idea really was brilliant.


End file.
